finally getting out of Thailand

Yep, a whole new country beckons. I am getting a minibus (yes, I swore I would never do tourist travel again, but after having spent what felt like most of my life, but really was 8hrs, waiting for trains in Bangkok train station, I am just going to pay extra and get the hell out of here) to Chiang Khong in an hour, and from there I am crossing into Laos, and getting the slowboat to Luang Prabang. I am excited by this development. Laos sounds very cool indeed, although I am only going a couple of places there - Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Viang Vehn, and the Plain of Jars. And yes, I probably horlixed up the spellings of most of those places, and "real" travellers will be disgusted.

Serendipity strikes just whenever I need it most. I was pretty grumpy and down on my last day in Haad Rin - I was wishing that I had already left the island, I wasn't travelling with anyone, and was generally cursing at the whole travel thing. This is actually the first time I have had the travel blues, but I knew that they had to strike sometime. It wasn't even sunny, so I couldn't work on my tan, and there was nothing that I felt like doing. Anyway, on this day of grumps, my darling little mobile rings, and its Casey, who wants to travel to Laos with me. Talk about perfect timing. So we agree to meet, and to travel up together. Now, the glories of fate can't smile too kindly on me, because she then proceeded to get food poisoning and miss our train, but we're going to meet in Laos in the next couple of days. Wunderbar.